Albert Ferber facts for kids

Albert Ferber was a talented pianist from Switzerland. He was born on March 29, 1911, and passed away on January 11, 1987. For over 40 years, he traveled the world, playing music for many people.

Learning to Play

Albert Ferber was a classical pianist and also a teacher. He was born in Lucerne, Switzerland. He studied music in Switzerland, Germany, and France. Some of his important teachers were Karl Leimer, Walter Gieseking, and Marguerite Long. While in Switzerland, he often played for the famous composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. However, he didn't see Rachmaninoff as a regular teacher. In 1937, Ferber first visited England, and by 1939, he moved to London permanently. There, he continued his studies with James Ching.

Music for Stage and Screen

Even though Albert Ferber was best known as a concert pianist, he also worked a bit in theater and movies. In the 1940s, he conducted orchestras for plays like The Beggar's Opera. Later, he appeared as a pianist in the 1947 film The Mark of Cain. He also wrote music for two movies, The Hangman Waits (1947) and Death in the Hand (1948). Both films were directed by Albert Barr-Smith. After these projects, he focused on performing and didn't compose much more music until later in his life. Near the end of his life, he wrote six songs using poems by Paul Verlaine.

Teaching Others

Besides performing, Ferber was also a dedicated teacher. He started teaching in Italy, filling in for his old teacher Karl Leimer. After moving to England, he taught piano at the James Ching Pianoforte School. Later in life, he gave many special classes, called masterclasses, in the UK and Europe. He worked with groups like the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA). However, many remember him best as a private teacher.

His students recall his teaching style. Robert Finley said Ferber taught him to relax and avoid muscle tension while playing. Kathron Sturrock appreciated Ferber's "gentle and helpful wisdom." Penelope Thwaites called him an "exceptional teacher" who helped students find their own unique style. She also said that all his students loved him very much.

His Performing Career

Ferber's performing career grew in England. He gave many concerts at Wigmore Hall in London during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1945, he had a successful audition with the BBC. This led to him playing concertos (pieces for a solo instrument and orchestra) with famous orchestras. He performed with Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Josef Krips and the Hallé Orchestra, and worked with Sir Adrian Boult, Sergiu Celibidache, Jascha Horenstein, and Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.

He traveled to many parts of the world to perform, especially enjoying his visits to South American countries. In the UK, he regularly played concerts in London at the Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls. He also continued to broadcast on the BBC until he became ill, which ended his performing career. He passed away in 1987.

What He Played

As a soloist with orchestras, Ferber played many concertos. These included works by Mozart and Beethoven. He also played the first, second, and fourth concertos by Rachmaninoff, and the second concertos by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Camille Saint-Saëns. He also performed concertos by Schumann and Grieg. A more unusual piece he played was the Concerto for Piano and Strings by Robert Gerhard.

He also performed as an accompanist, playing piano for singers. For example, he played for Alexander Kipnis in Schubert's Winterreise when he was just 18. He also played chamber music, which is music for a small group of instruments. He performed duos (for two instruments) with Henryk Szeryng (violin) and Ernesto Xancó (cello), and trios (for three instruments) with both artists.

Ferber was most active as a solo recitalist, meaning he often played concerts by himself. His solo music list was very long and covered many different styles. Besides well-known works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Schubert, Ferber also played many less common 20th-century pieces. These included piano sonatas by Ernest Bloch, Frank Bridge, and Robert Simpson, and Robert Gerhard's Don Quixote suite.

In July 1947, he gave the very first performance of Lennox Berkeley's Six Preludes for Piano. In May 1951, he also premiered Gerhard's Three Impromptus. Even when playing music by famous composers, Ferber liked to choose less common pieces. For example, he introduced audiences to Beethoven's Variations on Salieri's La Stessa, la Stessissima, Chopin's Variations on a German Folksong, and Schumann's Sonata No. 3. He especially loved French music, particularly the works of Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy, which he often included in his concerts. His concert programs were always creative and varied.

Recordings

You can find many of Albert Ferber's performances on recordings. One of his first LP records, featuring Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words and Schumann's Kinderscenen, came out in 1951. In the same year, he made a live recording of Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Haydn for two pianos, playing with Adelina de Lara at her farewell concert.

Over the next thirty years, he recorded Fauré's piano music, sonatas by Beethoven and Balakirev, and pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Ravel, and Smetana. He also had an LP called "The World's Best Loved Piano Music." He recorded music by Chaminade, Debussy, Fauré, Ibert, Poulenc, and Satie for another label. For Rare Recorded Editions, he made an LP of Rachmaninov's Sonata No. 1 and Variations on a Theme of Chopin. He also recorded two sets of Beethoven variations and almost all of Debussy's piano music. His last recording, made in 1981, was of the Schubert Impromptus.

Recently, some of his Debussy and Beethoven recordings have been re-released. All of his Debussy recordings have also been reissued by French EMI. Most recently, all of Ferber's recordings from 1945 to 1951 were released on CD. Even though there's some new interest in his music, many people today don't know about him.